Nintendo’s Wii has proven so far to be a big success, selling out in every country that it has been released in. Earlier this year, Sony and Microsoft both applauded Nintendo in their effort with the Wii and the direction they were going in. Now, however, representatives of both Microsoft and Sony have called the Wii a toy and a novelty, respectively. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Dave Karraker, senior director of corporate communications at Sony Computer Entertainment America, had this to say:

“We feel very confident that the PlayStation fan is going to wait until they can get a PlayStation 3. If they do pick up a Wii, it’s as more of a novelty.”

This, of course, wouldn’t mean much, except for the fact that Sony dismissed Nintendo’s DS in much the same way, and we all know how that turned out. The following quote is from Sony Worldwide President Phil Harrison, speaking to MCV on August 26, 2005:

“The idea of a handheld rivalry with Nintendo is an irrelevance. Those formats don’t appear in our planning. It’s not a fair comparison; not fair on them, I should stress. That sounds arrogant, maybe, but it’s the truth. With the DS, it’s fair to say that Nintendo stepped out of the technical race and went for a feature differentiation with the touch screen. But I fear that it won’t have a lasting impact beyond that of a gimmick – so the long-lasting appeal of the platform is at peril as a direct result of that.”

Turns out the “gimmick” has been outselling the PSP by a factor of five. Looks like the Wii will become such a “gimmick” too.

Read (1up.com)